Come with us to Africa to see something our Father in heaven is doing in Kenya's fourth largest city, Nakuru. Christ is raising up a testimony of love and truth among the helpless and downtrodden residents in the impoverished sections of this fast growing city. As we share the uncut gospel of the Kingdom of God with them, the changes happening in their lives has both encouraged ...and humbled us.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

May 20 2012

For
His Pleasure and His Glory

Go up to the mountains
and bring wood and build the temple, that
I may take pleasure in it and be glorified," says the LORD. (Haggai 1:8)

Well dear family of God; we have commenced to build a house
for the house of God to meet in and we’re hoping He will take pleasure in it
and be glorified in the process. We know that our Father is only pleased by
faith and glorified by sharing His love. So we want every piece of wood to be infused with faith
and love from the hands and hearts of His saints.

We have completely outgrown our old tent and it’s extension.
There were people standing for a couple
of hours in our Sunday gathering last week.

This Sunday's Gathering, men's, women's and business meetings lasted almost six straight hours. People are still coming in from the street and standing in the back. So by His grace we are going to
undertake the construction of a bigger place to meet. This meeting house will be
built through the efforts of men and women who love God and His people. We don't want anything fancy, just something to keep the rain and sun off our heads.

I remember many years ago when we were considering building
a meeting place in Rose Creek Village. We lacked the resources to even start
such a project. As we wondered what to do, a brother spoke up and said… “Let’s
at least dig the holes for the uprights. Then, having done all we can with what
we have, we can cry out to God and ask Him to provide the wood we need.”

So we
did … and He did. Our prayers went up
and so did our meeting place. That is exactly how we intend to construct this
meeting house in Nakuru, Kenya.

So we dug the holes and now God is providing our wood. We
fully expect that He will provide everything we need to raise up this meeting
place.

Our Father has already sent someone to oversee the construction of our
building and plenty of strong, young men to build it.

Our building overseer is an older gentleman by the name of Mr. Mwaniki. That's him holding the plumb bob on the right. We met him last year and had the opportunity to share the good news of the Kingdom of God with him. Our Father opened his heart and Mr. Mwaniki's response was to commit his life to Christ and become part of our
family at ‘Amazing Life Fellowship’.

He’s a farmer, mason and builder and a very sweet brother. This
dear man made the stage at the front of our tent of meeting with just a
trowel, sweat and his masonry skills. It took him two weeks of working part time before he finished the stage last Sunday morning as we began our worship.

After the gathering that Sunday the men met and agreed that any man who
could show up on Wednesday morning, should do so bright and early ready for a
full day’s work… and many of them did.

First we dug the holes literally by hand. Tools used: Sweat,
hands and a crow bar. Having dug the holes we then asked the church to pray. The next week people’s
hearts were opened up and we got our poles.

That's Patrick working on a hole. He's Christine's husband and one of my good friends. He's a hard working man and Amma and I love his family like our own.

When we arrived the following Wednesday morning Mr. Mwaniki instructed us to
strip the bark off of the all twenty-two twenty foot long eucalyptus poles. Tools used: Sweat, knives,
hammers and machetes. This was a lot of work.

Then came cutting the poles to an approximate size. Notice
there are no power tools of any kind being used. There were lots and lots of
cuts. Tools used: Sweat and small handsaws. This too, was a lot of work.

Next, we took used motor oil and saturated the bottom of the poles to protect
them from the mdudu (Swahili for insects). Tools used: Sweat, rags and old motor
oil.

After saturating the bottoms of the poles with the motor oil
we stuck them in the holes. Then we used a string and a plumb bob to attain the
proper height and alignment. Next we took small rocks and dirt and firmly
packed the poles in. Tools used: Sweat, string, plumb bob, rocks and dirt.

Well, the next part of our construction is to pray for more
wood to build the walls. We know God will give us what we need we just don’t
know exactly when. Till then; soggy, sunburned or standing we will continue to send our prayers up the mountain to get more wood.

If God should open your heart to help us and you can’t donate
any sweat, just keep praying … and should God enable you, feel free to donate some money.